Friday, November 1, 2013

Seven Quick Takes - Halloween Edition

Halloween 'taking because all the cool kids are doing it! Go to Jen's to see those cooler peeps.

{one}

Nora is not down with this.

I remember when I used to like Halloween. It must have been more than 4 years ago.

I have to admit I was completely uncreative, bought all my children the popular secular princess/superhero costume of their choice, and still came out of Halloween exhausted.

Halloween is also Luke's birthday though, so that makes it a double whammy when it comes to mommy-work. So I had wake up, have everything look special for Luke's birthday, special breakfast- yada yada, then bake a cake, make a soup so we would have supper ready when we got home from trick-or-treating, find everyone's costumes, build birthday Lego (which I'm terrible at), put costumes on four children, find winter clothes that fit under said costumes, feed babies so they could be ready to be left with my mom while I drove the kids into town for trick-or-treating, met Paul on his way home from work, trick-or-treated for about 45 minutes with the kids, drove home, fed everyone supper, opened presents, sang happy birthday, ate cake, while taking pictures of everything -of course, got all those sugar crazed kids in bed, ate half a bag of candy and one too many Tootsie Rolls, went to bed, woke up half an hour later to grumpy baby. Exhausted.

{two}

Tired. Frazzled. I was a bit of a frazzled grump at times yesterday when the kids asked for the 5 millionth time if it was time to go trick or treating yet, but it still wasn't my most exhausting Halloween ever, because I gave birth on October 31, 2009.

And so I really love October 31 for it being the day our wonderful Luke was born. So far its a bit challenging trying to not make Halloween a bigger deal than Luke's birthday, and hopefully when the kids are a bit bigger Luke can have parties where everyone comes in costume or something and he'll still enjoy it. But as it stands now he thinks Halloween happens on his birthday and not the other way around. Which is a pretty good way to roll I think.

{three}

Here's my little superheroes. They were pretty adorable. And if you don't think that the Hulk costume is not 100% applicable to Max's personality, you'd be 100% wrong. It was really fitting and ridiculous. Just the way I like my costumes.

{four}

Gemma wore a brand spanking new princess dress and actually allowed her hair to be brushed and declared herself Rapunzel! Making the new dress and the combed hair the only changes necessary to make her everyday outfit Halloween approved!

{five}

And Nora.

She went as "Mildly unimpressed infant who turns into Screaming Baby every night" kinda like a werewolf. She didn't even need a costume. But she is only really scary at 3 am when you've only had 2 hours of sleep.

{six}

We trick or treated in town and went for maybe 45 minutes. It was like summer compared to the -30 degrees Celsius it was last Halloween, but there was a bit of chilly rain and wind but still temperatures above zero which is amazing! That being said, everyone had coats on underneath their costumes, because its Canada dammit. Gemma had to wear a hat which was a fate worse than death and not princess approved, but they all categorically refused mitts. Thankfully they've still got all their digits contrary to their grandmother's warnings.

And here's the gigantic haul of candy three small children got from about 3 blocks worth of houses in a little more than half an hour. Its seriously incredible how much candy this town gives out! And these are the bags after we raided all the full size chocolate bars, bags of sour soothers, and most of the Reese's and Tootsie Rolls!

{seven}

With all this Halloween madness I'm a little, teeny, tiny bit thankful we don't have any Saints Day to-do. I mean, would I trade a lazier day for a nearby Catholic community with other children who celebrated the feast days with social events?! Hell, yeah. But I still feel exhausted just from yesterday.

Since in Canada today is not a Holy Day of Obligation -I KNOW!!-and my husband's regular Friday off from work, he stayed home with the kids this morning and I got to go to Mass solo which was pretty darn amazing. Obviously a small All Saints Day miracle!

We'll be celebrating by a small smattering of colouring of saints pages, reading some of our little saints books for kids, and eating some Oh St. Henry! bars.

(Have I mentioned I'm in a wedding next weekend and shouldn't be eating pounds of chocolate bars? Oh, well I am. Thank goodness God created Spanx!)

Happy All Saints Day everyone, and here's to a blessed weekend as we pray for All Souls!

4 comments:

I love your kids' costumes, but Gemma is the sweetest.Also I hear you on not wanting to pull off an All Saints' observance AND Halloween. Especially now that Anna's birthday will fall so close to both (but kudos to you who has BOTH on the SAME DAY). We end up doing All Saints' Day because the kids' friends go there... but maybe when they get a little older and can cope with more excitement, we might take them them trick-or-treating before the party. But in their saints costumes. I can't do TWO costumes. Ugh!